WASHINGTON – Gov. Tim Walz and two Democratic fellow governors will face orchestrated attacks from some of the fieriest hard-right lawmakers in Congress who accuse their high-profile witnesses of harboring dangerous criminal aliens.
Thursday’s hearing on “sanctuary states” will be held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is headed by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., a Trump loyalist and political attack dog who is weighing a run for governor.
The high-profile hearing will be held against the backdrop of the unrest touched off by federal immigration actions in Los Angeles, which prompted President Donald Trump to send in National Guard troops and Marines to try to quell the disturbance, moves opposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Comer leads a panel that includes some of the most fractious Freedom Caucus members among its members, including Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
The panel has also attracted some feisty Democratic lawmakers, too, including Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ro Khanna of California. So, testy exchanges are expected to characterize the hearing.
Walz has riled the GOP by touring the nation, holding town halls in districts of Republican House members who have stopped hosting these in-person events after colleagues were faced with angry constituents.
And Walz has been more combative than he was when he stumped for vice president as Kamala Harris’ running mate.
So, fireworks are expected at Thursday’s hearing on “sanctuary” states, during which Walz is expected to maintain that Minnesota is not a “sanctuary” state and is not in violation of any federal laws.
“Governor Walz is happy to work with Congress, but since Minnesota is not a sanctuary state, one can’t help but wonder if this is, perhaps, politically motivated,” Teddy Tschann, a spokesperson for Walz, said in an emailed statement.
The Trump administration has classified a wide range of state and local policies as “sanctuary” behavior.
It has demanded that American cities allow federal immigration agents access to prisons and that they provide advance notice when prisoners wanted on an immigration detainer are being released.
But in a legal opinion, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison determined that, unless accompanied by a court order, a request to detain an immigrant are requests, not commands, which federal courts around the country have recognized.
“Because no Minnesota civil law authorizes immigration detainer arrests, Minnesota law enforcement agencies risk significant civil liability if they enforce immigration detainers,” Ellison said.
Ellison also determined that the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reserves all powers not given to the federal government to the states, prohibits the federal government from commandeering state and local officials to enforce federal regulatory programs.
That could put the state at odds with the Trump administration, which has required cities and states to certify compliance with a federal law, known as Section 1373 of the Aliens and Nationality Act.
That law says states and localities can’t bar local officials from communicating with immigration authorities about the citizenship status of an individual.
Walz will be accompanied at the high-profile hearing by outside counsel, and the governor will also bring a prepared statement.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, who as majority whip is part of the GOP House leadership, slammed Walz, who supported the expansion of state-funded health care to the undocumented and sarcastically wished him “good luck” at the hearing.
“From hurling outrageous insults against ICE agents to offering a multitude of taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens in Minnesota, Tim Walz’s immigration agenda can be summed up easily: pro-illegal alien, anti-Minnesotan,” Emmer told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Emmer also said “if Tim Walz thinks he will be able to defend his abysmal record before Congress, then he’s even more of a buffoon than I thought. I only have one thing to say to Timmy as he heads to Washington this week: GOOD LUCK.”
Hearings often more smoke than fire
Comer spent much of the last Congress promoting sinister-sounding allegations against former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as other members of the Biden family.
His many hearings on what he called the “Biden crime family” propelled him to stardom among MAGA voters who were bent on bringing the former president down. Earlier this month, Comer said he is broadening an investigation into the extent of Joe Biden’s physical and mental decline while in office.
He’s also investigating Harvard for “unlawful discrimination” against Jewish students, the Democratic fundraising platform Act Blue for possible fraudulent foreign donation and liberal-leaning non-profit organization for what Greene has called “corruption.”
Comer’s focus in this Congress has also shifted to immigration and he’s targeted Democratic elected officials, many of whom, like Walz, have been considered possible contenders for the White House in 2028.
And this is not the first time Comer has tried to investigate Walz.
When Walz was running as Harris’ running mate, Comer requested information from the FBI about the governor’s many trips to China, most of them made when he was a high school teacher. Comer was looking for any links Walz might have to the Chinese Communist Party, but he was not awarded with any kind of smoking gun from the FBI.
As fact-finding efforts, many of Comer’s investigations fizzled and his hearings were known more for their heated exchanges and platforms for conspiracy theories than attempts to collect new information.
Comer has had a bumpy ride in this Congress, too. For instance, his first hearing on sanctuary jurisdictions, held March 5, backfired.
Comer and his GOP colleagues on the oversight committee planned an attack on Democratic mayors from New York, Denver, Chicago and Boston, cities that tout municipal laws that protect undocumented migrants. The Republican lawmakers sought to portray the Democratic-led cities as havens for criminal activity and foreign gangs.
But the Democratic mayors used the occasion to amplify their arguments about immigration and urban safety.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who brought her one-month-old infant to the hearing, said it was the Trump administration’s “over-the-top“ tactics that jeopardized safety for Americans.
“This federal administration is making hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing residents afraid to live their lives,” Wu said. “A city that’s scared is not a city that’s safe, a land ruled by fear is not the land of the free.”
The post Walz readies for coordinated GOP attack in hearing over ‘sanctuary’ policies appeared first on MinnPost.
